That puts the new Kindle Fire a full $50 under the new tablet from Barnes and Noble and well above the Vizio Tablet as well.

See here for a side by side:

I don’t see any of the large size tablets competing with the iPad this year. The device outclasses its competitors by delivering more and higher quality apps. But these smaller and cheaper tablets from Vizio, Barnes and Noble and Amazon offer things the iPad cannot at cheaper price points. Besides being far cheaper, these tablets are much more portable and might fit in a very large pocket.

The Vizio Tablet, for instance, beats the iPad at certain tasks. The Vizio Tablet has infrared technology, like the kind in standard remote controls, so it can be used as a kind of universal remote control for all of your existing technology. Apple handhelds don’t have infrared.

The Vizio Tablet also has GPS built-in too, so it can be used for turn-by-turn voice-guided navigation even though it doesn’t have a cellular Internet connection. The equivalent $500 Wi-Fi only iPad doesn’t have GPS (the more expensive cellular versions do) and doesn’t have a free app that can accept voice commands for turn-by-turn directions.